Day one of congestion charging - and the locals are revolting

Durham introduces its controversial £2 toll for cars entering the city centre, but the scheme's first customer refuses to pay

In the circular, part-cobbled route through the small peninsula that accommodates Durham's Norman cathedral, an experiment began yesterday that could see city centres across Britain change for good.

But the burghers of Durham, who had spent five years dreaming up a £2 congestion charge for this glorified cul-de-sac, had not counted on 75-year-old Andrew McRobbie, his grey, P-registered Ford Mondeo, and his indomitable wife, Joyce.

Several minutes into the city's big scheme for its historic centre, which has been screaming out for environmental deliverance from the onslaught of 3,000 cars a day, the retired colliery manager became the first motorist asked to fork out his £2 toll. And with interested observers from Edinburgh to Hong Kong looking on, he steadfastly refused.

For Mr McRobbie, a tourist from Kent on holiday in nearby South Tyneside, the demand compounded an unhappy 15 minutes that had begun with frustrated plans to park in front of the Norman cathedral (he considered the £5 charge to be excessive) and wound up with a five-minute wait at the traffic lights leading back from the World Heritage Site towards the toll barrier.

"I don't think so," said Mr McRobbie, when asked to pay up. "It's ridiculous." His car's disabled badge, evidence of his own artery trouble, counted for nothing, he was told. The disabled, like everyone else, must now catch one of two 50p-a-ride hopper buses to avoid the toll.

Motorists who refused to pay up before 6pm would incur a £30 fine, he was warned. But any inclination to waver was quickly stamped out of him by his wife. "I'll go to jail before I pay," she insisted. And with that, a police officer told the couple they were causing an obstruction and moved them on.

The development was hard luck on Durham County Council, the custodians of the scheme. If they had not handed a framed plaque and £2 coin to the motorist in front of the McRobbies – a 53-year-old who had just delivered his son to university – they could technically have concluded that their first paying customer was a happy one. But the drama at the barrier demonstrated that, when it comes to congestion charging, it doesn't take a £5-a-day city entry charge – Mayor Ken Livingstone's more audacious plan for London – to ruffle local feathers.

It is a lesson for other British cities considering congestion charges, which were made possible through powers in the Transport Act 2000 as a solution to the damaging effects of car use. If Durham's prototype works, bigger schemes for Edinburgh in 2006 and Bristol in 2007 may follow, where the councils hope to charge £1 and £2 respectively for entry to their entire cities. Manchester and Leeds are also interested.

But the effects of congestion charging elsewhere in the world are largely unestablished. Projects in Sweden, Singapore and South East Asia are too recent to be conclusive.

Durham's example should teach other cities that exemptions are a point of contention, particularly to delivery van drivers, who have been told they must pay the new toll if they enter the cul-de-sac from 10am to 6pm, Monday to Saturday. The Freight Transport Association's northern policy manager, Jonathan James, said his members should be exempt. "It seems to fight against the logic of the scheme to charge essential delivery vans for the privilege of accessing the city centre."

Watching a council dust cart pass through without charge did not improve Mr James's mood, though municipal leaders have carefully avoided embarrassment by not granting free access to mayoral cars. The chauffeur of one, a gas-guzzling 2.2-litre Vauxhall Omega, happily paid up at lunchtime.

At the 600-year-old Market Tavern pub, the manager, Tony Lenaghan, was concerned that delivery vans would plough into the city before the 10am toll kicked in, causing delays "all the way back to the A1".

Other dissenters include cab drivers, who began a boycott of the peninsula before the introduction of the toll, which wipes out the £1.90 they charge tourists for the short shunt from station to cathedral. Retailers say it will hit trade. "Customers will not bother coming here," said Mark Soham, 29, the proprietor of the Van Mildert clothes shop. "They'll just go somewhere with easier access."

These impediments seem unlikely to deter Durham council. Environmental managers are fed up with the Durham "kiss and run" – its visitors' habit of circumnavigating the peninsula while their spouses draw money from the bank. Others don't even bother completing the circuit, and just wait on the double yellow lines.

A fatal collision between a car and pedestrian last Christmas was the low point of traffic problems that have resulted in 15 accidents over five years and endless arguments as motorists compete to reach the shops and the cathedral.

The council's Labour leader, Ken Manton, insisted that if the £2 toll had not brought traffic volumes down in six months he would increase the charge. "Proceeds from the charge will fund the two new park-and-ride buses and shopmobility buggies for the disabled," he said. If it made a profit, he said, the system would be failing.

Though it will take several days to detect the toll's effects, the council was claiming traffic had been reduced as word of the toll got out by lunchtime.

It wasn't all doom and gloom at the toll booth, either. Chris Sansom, 36, was paying up his £2 without complaint after a disastrous expedition to buy an ice cream on the peninsula. He'd picked up a £30 fine for parking on double yellow lines while buying the treat for his two-year-old son. "I'll know better next time," he said.

His reaction came as quite a relief to Joanne Gardner, 21, the woman on the front line of this transport experiment. As Britain's first road charging user adviser, Ms Gardner is being paid to stand at the bollard and dish out Durham's least welcome new form – the Saddler Street road user charging scheme payment charge, which informs those who refuse the toll of their £30 liability. (She handed out seven in her first three hours yesterday.)

Ms Gardner wouldn't say how much NCP, the project's administrator, is paying her, but with two years' experience in security she was quite confident of her credentials. "I've had a bit of security training and dealt with all sorts at the local shopping arcade," she said. "There were shoplifters, complainers about the car park charges and drunk people in McDonald's when I worked night shifts. Shall we say, I'm used to different customers."

Cities on the way to congestion charges

More than 35 other local authorities are seeking to impose road tolls.

BATH: More than two million tourists a year are putting the city's transport infrastructure under massive strain. Tolls would finance the introduction of circular bus services, the development of taxi tokens linked to bus/rail tickets and the proposed construction of a new trolleybus or Light Rapid Transit rail system.

BRISTOL: The council has called for the introduction of a basic £1 a day rush-hour charge imposed by an electronic cordon around the city, with 14 entry gates. In recognition of public resistance, the council has said it won't bring in the tolls until 2007 by which time they hope to see a big improvement in public transport with the construction of a new light railway system.

EDINBURGH: Plans to bring in a £2 charge to enter the city by 2006 are well under way despite public disquiet. The scheme coincides with plans for £1.5bn worth of transport improvements, including a new multimillion-pound tram system within 15 years.

LEEDS: The council's proposals will require motorists to buy a permit to travel inside the inner ring road. There are plans for a new Supertram scheme and improved bus and rail services.

NOTTINGHAM: City planners want to introduce a workplace parking levy, under which employees who now park free at work would be forced to buy a permit. Under the scheme, motorists would pay £150 a year, raising £10m a year towards public transport projects including a £300m tram system and a £100m redevelopment of the railway station.

YORK: The council plans three new park-and-ride sites, four new commuter railway stations, ring road improvements and congestion charging, as part of a £50m scheme.